It Started With a Coffee Cup: The Story Behind Local Connections Volusia

Sometimes the best ideas don’t start with a business plan.

Sometimes they start with conversations, a community you love and, apparently, a coffee cup.

When I look at this picture now, I see something completely different than I did when I took it.

At the time, Local Connections wasn’t a media and marketing company. It wasn’t a website. It wasn’t even really a business.

It was an idea.

The name originally came from Local Connections: Your Local Home Team, alongside real estate and mortgage. My friend Lindsay Ackerman was there from the beginning, always ready to show up for another community event or entertain one of our crazy ideas.

Including one that went something like:

“Hey, what if we put Local Connections stickers on the coffee cups?” 

Coastline Coffee Bar said yes.

And that matters to me now because Coastline has always been about more than coffee.

They support local makers, host events, give people a place to gather and create opportunities for small businesses to be seen.

So there we were, holding Local Connections cups inside a business already doing something I cared deeply about.

Bringing a community together.

I just didn’t know yet what that little idea was going to become.

Then It Clicked

Connecting people has always been my thing.

I spent years in banking and business, including business operations for a UK based startup marketplace for fonts and digital designs. I became a Realtor. And through all of it, I loved marketing.

Not simply advertising something.

I wanted to know why people should care about it.

I’m still incapable of walking into a business without thinking:

Why aren’t you showing people THIS?

Wait. People don’t know about THAT?!

Yes, the unsolicited marketing advice is very real. 😂

And the more time I spent out in Volusia County, the more I noticed something.

There are incredible businesses, people, events and places all around us that many of us simply don’t know exist.

At the same time, I was talking to business owners asking how they could get more local people to notice them.

They were looking for each other.

And I realized I was already standing in the middle doing what I love.

Connecting them.

That became Local Connections.

What I Want This to Be

Local Connections is a community focused, hyperlocal media and creative marketing company, but I never want the word marketing to make anyone think any of it will become one giant advertisement.

Quite the opposite.

I want to show you the business I stumbled across and can’t believe more people know about.

I want to tell you about the event happening 20 minutes away.

I want to introduce you to the person behind the storefront.

I want to make a video that makes you yell:

“WAIT. Where is this?!”

And when I work with a local business, I want to help them figure out what makes people feel that way too.

Because I believe this with everything I know about marketing:

Posting isn’t the same thing as marketing.

A flyer can tell me you have a new drink.

Make me want to taste it.

Show me the person who created it. Tell me why people love it. Give me a reason to care.

That’s the kind of marketing I love.

And that’s where the two sides of Local Connections fit together.

It Has to Do Some Good, Too

There’s one more piece I refuse to lose as this grows.

Community. Because Community is the heart of Local Connections.

Our Stock the Classroom initiative, supported by our amazing Biz Besties women’s group, showed me what can happen when the relationships we’re building turn into actual help for people right here in Volusia County.

I want Local Connections growing to mean we can do more of that.

And thankfully, I have people willing to put up with me while I try. 😂

My husband, Dan, has heard more “Okay, hear me out…” conversations than any human reasonably should, and my kids have learned that Mom pulling out her phone while we’re somewhere is apparently just part of life now.

There’s also a reason I’m usually awake around 4:30 in the morning.

I have a lot of ideas and that's how I get more hours in my day.

But for the first time, they don’t feel like a million unrelated ideas anymore.

They feel like they’re all leading somewhere.

And We’re Just Getting Started

I don’t know exactly what Local Connections will become.

I don’t think I’m supposed to yet.

I just know what I want to happen because it exists.

I want someone to walk into a local business because they discovered it here.

I want someone who’s lived in Volusia County for 30 years to say, “How did I not know about this?”

I want a business owner to feel like people finally understand what makes their place special.

And I want the connections we make to occasionally turn into something that makes our community a little better.

That’s enough of a reason for me to keep building.

So now when I look at that picture, I don’t just see us holding a couple of coffee cups with stickers on them.

I see a little idea before any of us knew what it could become.

Turns out, that little sticker idea was the beginning of a pretty big story. ☕️🩷

And we’re only on the first chapter.

So tell me:

What should our next Local Connection be?